Southborough teen battles cancer with positive attitude

As the elder resident on her floor in the cancer ward at Children’s Hospital, 15-year-old Maddie Collins of Southborough did a lot to pass the time, our news partners at the MetroWest Daily News reported.

She painted younger girls’ nails, played plenty of games and spent time with family.She made friends, made crafts and made people laugh.

One thing she never did was consider dying.

"She is a tough, tough girl," said cousin Katelyn Sullivan. "She went in there, and she said, ‘This is not going to kill me.’"

Maddie and her mother Louanne this week are at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, where Louanne will donate blood cells that will be transplanted into Maddie through a treatment aimed at reducing the chance of relapse.

After spending the last five months battling cancer, Maddie is in remission. Still, she and her family aren’t giving up the fight.

"We’re trying in every way (to give back), because we’ve been so fortunate," said Sullivan, who has organized a fundraising effort shooting to raise $80,000 toward cancer research.

"I have to do something on behalf of my family," said Sullivan, 28, of Natick. "I’m just hoping we can repay (the hospital) for what they’ve done."IVs, hospital gowns and beeping machines thrust themselves into Maddie’s life last September, when the Algonquin Regional High School freshman began getting very tired for no clear reason.

At first, her family thought this was due to the rigors of adjusting to high school life, Sullivan said, as Maddie had been working hard and trying out for the volleyball team. But the fatigue persisted, Sullivan said, until her cousin could barely walk up the stairs of her home.

Thinking she might have the flu, Maddie went to the doctor on Sept. 18, 2012. After some tests, a doctor called the family at 8 p.m., telling them she needed some follow-up tests that night at Children’s Hospital in Boston.

"My parents noticed the oncology sign right away, but I didn’t notice it," Maddie wrote in an essay for her English class last November.

Maddie, tuckered out from the long day, fell asleep in the hospital. When she awoke the next morning, her parents and the doctor told her the news. She had acute myelogenous leukemia, a cancer that starts inside the bone marrow, and would need to be in the hospital for as long as six months.

Maddie cried with her parents and wondered why this had happened to her. Two days later she began the first of four rounds of chemotherapy, with some sessions lasting a week.

"I reminded myself that lots of people have bad stuff happen to them, some of it even worse than what I was going through," Maddie wrote while in the hospital.

"Feeling sorry for myself would only make things worse."

"She really never complained," said Sullivan, who works in Boston and would visit her cousin often. "Her whole demeanor was, ‘Whatever it takes, let’s go.’"

Maddie refused to stop learning, Sullivan said, using a tutor in the hospital and also drawing strength from her mother, an administrator at a school in Wellesley who took leave from her job to stay with her daughter 24/7.

"(Mom) has been by my side through everything," Maddie wrote. "My dad has been keeping my competitive spirit alive with heated rounds of my favorite board games."

After less time than originally thought needed, Maddie was released last week, Sullivan said, and still hopes to be able to try out for the softball team this spring.

Sullivan said Maddie and her family’s quality of life during the ordeal would have been far diminished were it not for Children’s Hospital.

"Cancer is a mental battle," Sullivan said, which the hospital made easier by providing money used to help Maddie buy decorations for her room, games to play and even pillows to make her mother more comfortable.

"It’s those little things that go so far and can make a huge difference," Sullivan said, like when Maddie’s volleyball team at Algonquin pitched in and bought her an iPad.

Sullivan’s fundraising campaign begins March 14, when she will compete against three others to raise the most money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by May 23.

If she wins, Sullivan will be named "Woman of the Year," and may have her and Maddie’s picture on a billboard in Boston.

Far more important for Maddie than any contest or billboard is the perspective she's gained on her life and her family.

"My mom helped me start a list of the worst things about cancer; it is going to be long by the time I’m through with it," she wrote. " I also made a list of the things that are not horrible, like knowing how much people care about you.

"I feel like I am surrounded by a blanket of caring."To donate to Sullivan's fundraising efforts, go to teammaddie.com.

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